Your Name and Title: Emily Gover, Information Literacy Librarian (emily at imagineeasy dot com)

Library, School, or Organization Name: ImagineEasy Solutions, LLC - EasyBib.com

Co-Presenter Name(s): Jessica Bacques

Area of the World from Which You Will Present: New York, NY - "The Capital of the World' :-)

Language in Which You Will Present: English

Target Audience(s): Academic librarians and school media specialists, any librarian with an interest in information literacy trends.

Short Session Description (one line): We will address new trends in information literacy, including research habits, citation practices, and the status of plagiarism, and how we are building tools to cultivate research skills that are critical not only in the classroom, but in our everyday information-driven lives.

Full Session Description (as long as you would like): 

Two years ago, it was estimated that over 500,000,000 GB of data is created online every two days. To put that into perspective, that's the same amount of information we created from the dawn of civilization until 2003. It is a mind-bending number, but one that is totally believable, living in a world of Tweets, Pinning, Tumbling, status updates and instantaneous sharing.

The amount of information that has already been indexed online and continually added everyday is enough to overwhelm even the sharpest of researchers. It is apparent that students do not have the research skills they need to tackle this issue, and many are lacking in basic information literacy skills. Librarians provide a wealth of assistance to its users, but sadly they are too often underutilized. Students are more likely to reference Google, Wikipedia, their instructors, classmates and friends than meet with a librarian for research assistance.

We will address the findings of various studies of how learners of all ages are conducting research, and the roadblocks they face. In addition, we will discuss how we are building tools to cultivate research skills that are critical not only in the classroom, but in our everyday information-driven lives. 

Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session: EasyBib